The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay 1966 Chevy Wiper Tranmission Issue

I bought LMC/Brothers (et al) wiper transmission along with new wiper arms and wipers a week ago and installed them this past weekend.

This morning, they locked up--again.
When this happens, the passenger side wiper arm goes beyond the side of the window and sticks there.

Needless to say, I'm disappointed--not to mention the safety issue when driving in the rain.

This system was brand new and only lasted about 15 minutes in the rain.

What can i do to make my wipers more reliable? i dont have the money to do what everyone laughingly tells me--which is to buy a new truck.

I can afford new parts, but a new truck? come on.... =/

Anyways, if someone has bought and installed a better system, i'm ALL EARS!

BTW, my truck is a 1966 Chevy Stepside.

Thanks,

Mechttu
Houston, TX

Also, i installed a new wiper switch recently.

The wiper motor works fine.

When you said wiper arms did you mean the arms that go between the pivots and the blades? If so then I would take a look at the linkage from the motor/transmission to the pivots and the pivots them selves. If you have too much slop at the pivots or in the linkage it is possible that one or both wiper arms go to far and bind. I am not as adept to the linkage setup on your truck but it seems that if you have replaced both ends of the system and it still locks up then the middle is all that is left.

Thank you for responding.

By wiper arms, i mean the the two arms that actually hold the wiper blades.

In addition, i bought the linkage(called a wiper transmission?) that goes under the cowel on the front of the truck.
When you buy the linkage arms, you get the male pivots that go with them.

I think the problem lies in the amount of "grip" between the male pivot gear and the female ID gears on the wiper arm.

the "teeth" in these gears are small and i'm guessing the angular momentum of the wiper arms is too great for the amount of engagement between the male and female teeth--thus they slip and the passenger arm goes over the edge of the window and gets hung up.

all of these parts were brand new from one of the old truck sites on the Internet (name withheld).

There needs to be a way to SECURELY engage the wiper arm to the pivot gears attached to the linkage under the cowel. It's too bad no one mfg's these pieces with a threaded male and a nut to pinch the wiper arm onto the pivot. that might be one cure. I can think of a few other heinous ways, but i would like to have a "proper" cure (like a system from another year/model truck) that is much more robust--no southern engineering, please.

If anyone has any ideas, please dont hold back... PLEASE!

Thanks,

Mechttu
Houston, TX

Again, here's a list of the parts that were replaced with new ones:

* Rubber Wipers
* Wiper Arms (driver and passenger side)
* Wiper Transmission Arms (the linkage that attaches to the wiper motor extending through he fire wall and attaches to the wiper arms). This transmission/linkage includes the male pivots that fit into the wiper arms. they're sold as a complete set.

HUMMMM Sounds like you covered all the bases. Wounder if it is just a simple clocking problem? I have never done this repair, maybe someone else will chime in.

clocking?

also, is there anything related to the wiper motor that could cause the passenger side wiper to travel to far outward and become stuck as it traveled past the edge of the window?

i still think the problem lies with the engagement of the gear teeth between the pivot point (male) and the wiper arm (female).

i'm not sure how the pivot gear is attached to the mount below the cowling. however, if i can get that gear off, i can redesign the gear engagement between the pivot point and the wiper arm.... awww, HELL!!! There's GOT to be an easier way! =/

i dont want to reinvent the wheel here. i just want a stronger engagement between the male pivot and the female wiper arm gear teeth.... =(

and i dont want to JB Weld them together either... =/

Pull your wiper arms off,cycle the wiper motor a couple of times,replace the arms approximently inch above the windshield rubber,if they bind up again I would think the teeth on the arm,or the gear are the wrong size or depth.Which means they will slip.Just my opinion,I could be wrong.

yes. the wipers were installed about 1" above the bottom of the window.

per the (yellow) shop manual, i installed the driver side wiper arm about 1-5/8" and the passenger side wiper 1" above the bottom of the window.

The yellow shop manual states to put the driver-side wiper 1-45/64 above the bottom of the window (1.703"), but i didnt think it was necessary to use my dial caliper to install them... lol

i'm guessing the factory used some sort of gage (flat metal, like a ruler) to get the spacing "correct."

I really think the problem lies in the gear teeth used on the Pivots (male teeth) and the Wiper Arms (female teeth).

What can we (i) do to get a firmer grip between these two parts?

Drill a hole and tap a screw? maybe find someone else who might also have a 66 and measure their wiper parts,might have wrong parts that were packaged as later model.

If the wiper arms are slipping on the knurled knob they're supposed to slide over, put a drop of red or blue LocTite on the knurl before installing the wiper arm. Let it dry overnight before running the wipers. If you use the red stuff, be aware that it will probably be necessary to heat the assembly to ever get it apart again.
Jerry